The Postmodern Film, Feb. 4
The Postmodern Film, Feb. 4 Mujeres al borde de ataque de nervios / Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 1988) John Hill, “Film and Postmodernism” Mark Allinson, “Postmodernism, Performance and Parody” Professor Columpar explained this week that postmodern texts “tend to privilege fragmentation over unity” and “form over content.” The emphasis on fragmentation over unity and form over content is evidenced by certain aesthetic features: pastiche, intertextual references, intermixture of high art and low culture, irreverence and irony, self-reflexivity. For your wiki post, first I want you to quote either Hill or Allinson’s definition of one of the above aesthetic features. Second I want you to define one of the above aesthetic features in your own words; you may look back to your notes from lecture. Third, I want you to identify an example of that aesthetic feature from the film. See my example below. Upload your post to this page and bring a print or digital copy with you to tutorial. Be prepared to share your post with others during tutorial and to play Agree-Disagree. ---------------------- “Irony in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" by Kate Brennan Hill defers to Frederic Jameson’s distinction between parody and pastiche; Hill explains, “while parody involves a sense of criticism or mockery of the text or texts which are being parodied, pastiche simply consists of ‘blank parody’: a ‘neutral mimicry without parody’s ulterior motives’” (“Film and Postmodernism” 101). Pastiche, as a term, describes the composition of a text, during which process the artist appropriates (or “copies from”) stylistic elements from other texts, artists, genres, media, and traditions and repurposes them; all of the available techniques of style available can be drawn upon. In Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Almodovar uses pastiche to mix together the performance style of a soap opera with the physical comedy and battle-of-the-sexes theme of the screwball comedy. In classical soap operas and screwball comedies, women are central figures for the story but are defined by their relationship with men. Almodovar’s pastiche is a clever reversal of those generic conventions because the women direct the action of the story, and in the end Pepa finds contentment only after leaving Ivan. ---------------------- "Pastiche & Contrast as an Undercutting of Source" by Maxwell Koyama According to John Hill’s article “Film and postmodernism”, postmodern art frequently incorporates “recycled” artistic material into itself, usually in order to “‘subvert old meanings as well as ‘construct’ new ones through the repositioning of artistic and cultural discourses” (100). This is to say that the reuse of unoriginal elements in art by postmodern artists is often done to undercut the original meaning of the material, either in order to forge a unique meaning that is or is not accentuated in its contrast to the intended meaning of the “stolen” item, or in order to directly criticize, question, or deconstruct the meaning of the original. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, for example, employs imagery that evokes the culture of the 1950s in order to subvert the tacit meanings that these images embody. Almodovar makes use of images from vintage advertisements in his opening credits, as well as typically midcentury music there and throughout, and most distinctly, costumes the character Lucia in 1950s-esque clothing and makeup. Lucia’s anachronistic contrast with the other women depicted undermines the original meanings that this clothing was intended to represent (feminine virtue, dignity, conservative beauty, sexual repression/chastity, etc.) by pointing out the absurdity or wrong-ness of the image of the hysterical woman, as alluded to by the title. Lucia embodies an ironic, irreverent reinterpretation of the era that she is made up to imitate, and in the context of the surroundings with which— in the typical postmodern manner of interweaving different recycled styles— she clashes, serves as a criticism of the worldview of that time. ---------------------- "Postmodernism and Self-Reflexiveness" by Francisco Kim Postmodern films, as we've learned in lecture, have a characteristic of being self-reflexive, which Allinson notes, often lean "towards performance, simulation and parody, the absence of so-called narratives.' That is to say, postmodern films often call attention to themselves as not just films, but as a produced representation of life. We see an overt example of this in 'Women on the Verge" in the end, when a song is played which expressed that 'Ivan (and by extension, all men) are performers.' (as a side note I didn't notice this myself, only from Allinson) However, that theme applies to the whole of the movie, and not just to the world which the film is trying to depict (the real world?). We know that all of the characters in the movie are performing because we are watching a movie. A message of the movie is that Ivan/all men are performers, but throughout the course of the film, the various characters perform, not only for us, but for (or rather, to) each other, deceiving and manipulating each other for their own ends. In fact, the two 'main' characters, Pepa and Ivan, are portrayed by actress/actor, but are themselves voice actress/actor in the film, a small and trivial fact in the narrative, but important in its style as a postmodern film. The film's self-reflexive nature also shines through in the script and performance of the cast, as we are bombarded with increasingly ridiculous and over-the-top scenarios as the film nears its end. However, a sense of this exaggeration is felt from even the very first few scenes of the movie; when Pepa throws the first phone out her window. The film from beginning to end is a parody of life, as while the situations that the characters find themselves in aren't so unbelievable, the actions in response to the situation go from 'unreasonable' to 'utterly ridiculous.' The film doesn't try to trick us into believing these characters as realistic people, but doesn't portray its characters as simple caricatures either. Instead, both it and we, the audience, are aware that we are watching a performance. ---------------------- "Mixing 'high' and 'low' culture elements in postmodern film" by Tua Hytönen In the article "Film and Postmodernism" John Hill discusses how 'high' and 'low' culture can be intermixed in postmodern film "such as those of the European 'art' film and the Hollywood genre film". (99) Hill's definition of mixing these cultures refers to 'high' culture being the type of culture mostly available to higher class people, white collar workers, and in the case of films, it would be types of films that generally most people wouldn't "understand". 'Low' culture refers to what we mostly call popular culture; culture that is openly available to everyone, generated for the masses. Popular culture films are often big budget Hollywood films, with relatable stories to most viewers. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown uses the mixture of these two different cultures in interesting, unexpected ways. As we are told a story that is mostly very typical, and can be relatable to viewers through different themes that occur in the movie, it uses popular culture. The film mostly relies on continuity editing, and other systems that the masses are used to viewing, in order of understanding the storyline. However, Almodóvar manages to incorporate bits and pieces of 'high' culture; things that you would more likely expect to see in an art film. The portrayal of multiple different clocks, for instance, in the way they are used in this film, is something out of an art film. The black and white dream sequence in the beginning of the film is also something that could be directly taken out of an art film. The intermixture of these different cultures manages to create a full, comprehensible film, even though it manages to confuse the viewer at times. ---------------------- "Pastiche in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)"- by Christine Cameron From the text Film and Postmodernism ''by John Hill, pastiche is described as the following: “For Jameson, while parody involves a sense of criticism or mockery of the text or texts which are being parodied, pastiche simply consists of ‘blank parody’: a ‘neutral mimicry without parody’s ulterior motives’.” In other words, pastiche is the term to describe a longstanding motif, theme, and/or stylistic idea that is continuously recycled (for lack of a better word) because new ideas are few and far between. In ''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ''(1988), Pedro Almodóvar creates a comedy world that follows a recycled theme: men vs women. This is not just the case in other comedy movies (for example: ''How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days (2003) follows this theme), but also in real life we often see situations like games where teams are split up with men vs women. It is a popular and well-used theme that scarcely loses its entertaining aspects despite it’s overuse. ---------------------- Self-reflexivity in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Tian Sang As a defining attributes of postmodern film, art film, and radical film, self-reflexivity can be easily seen in the last three films we watch with its clear style of "the absence of so-called narratives" (Mark Allison). The existence of this characteristic not only gives the audience a sense of theatrical performance, but also a background for the world the film is displaying. In the film, this self-reflexivity is best represented by its relation with some social movement, feminism more specifically. Instead of telling a story from a typical view of man, this story is overwhelmed by female characters with distinguishing characteristics. In fact, the whole story is about how a heart broken woman get rid of her ex-lover, through which she starts to reveal the cover of him(which actually is a symbol of all male), and finally regains her courage to rescue herself from the past. ---------------------- ---------------------- Postmodernism/Self-Reflextivity in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Lara Gurleyen The characteristic of self-reflexivity comes up many times when we talk about Postmodernism film. In the “Postmodernism, Performance and Parody” article, Mark Allinson writes that postmodernism has “the absence of so-called narratives”. Narratives are meant to draw you into the story and keep the illusion of being in the film through its entirety, however in postmodernism that is the complete opposite. It’s object is to get you thinking constantly about its topics or its scenes. In the film'' Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'' there are many example of self reflexivity. For example in one of the earlier scenes there is a shot of small opening on a top floor as it pans down to the actors in the recording booth. This is used to simulate almost a camera lens and also in the middle of the film there is a part when Pepa gets into a taxi cab and says “follow that car” and the driver responds “I only thought this happened in movies”. This takes the audience out of the illusion of the film and they recognize that it is in fact a film. ---------------------- Pastiche and Women on the verge of a breakdown(1988) ''by Lola Lagji John hill mentions pastiche in the following:"Although both parody and pastiche are conventionally associated with postmodernism, jameson argues that, within postmodern culture, it is pastiche which is dominant. For jameson, while parody involves a sense of criticism or mockery of the text or texts which are being parodied, pastiche simply consists of 'blank parody’"(101). So, pastiche is really just an impersonation. In the film ''Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown(1988), I thought there was a use of pastiche. For example, the scene where a man was walking around talking to many different women saying things like “I love you” and “you are the only one I care about” (I can’t remember exactly what it was he was saying but something along those lines), I thought this was an imitation of things we see in films, specifically romantic films. ---------------------- '' ---------------------- Intertextual references in ''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Yao Chen In the article “Film and Postmodernism”, John Hill describes intertextual references as “use of references to film history, and quotation from other styles (e.g. Carroll 1982).” (“Film and Postmodernism” 101). In other words, an intertextual reference is the idea that the text of the film have been influenced by previous styles or makes reference to previous films. In Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Almodovar makes an intertextual reference by inserting fragments of the film Johny Guitar (Ray, 1954) on the TV screen as Ivan records his voice in the microphone. ---------------------- Irreverence and irony in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Alina Seropian According to Allinson irreverence and irony is “to perform means to act, display certain skills, or even to dissimulate or pretend” (210) In other words, according to my understanding, irreverence is an imitation of something that can be used in various context to gain different result. In Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Lucia is believing that she is a “criminal” because she was involved indirectly with crime. While other times her alarmed behaviour and constant wait for cops, leads the spectator to question. Almodovar likes to play with that idea. Interestingly, Almodovar hints and foreshadows the outcome of Lucia’s a situation through the detergent commercial. In that (commercial) scene, Pepe washes her son’s bloodstains on the shirt and says “Right here. Sparkling clean.” While policeman say “No trace of blood” this hints that even though Lucia may be “involved” with the crime; no trace of evidence is seen. This is a situational irony that uses “pretend”. ---------------------- Women on the Verge of Irreverence by Katy Czajkowski In his article, John Hill describes that “the idea of postmodernism has been used to carry on a tradition of ideological criticism which has sought to identify the social conservatism of the aesthetic conventions employed by postmodern cinema”. (“Film and Postmodernism” 98). This quote defines the aesthetic characteristic that postmodern films depict: irreverence and irony, as mentioned by Professor Columpar. Irreverence and irony, in terms of postmodern films, is highlighting the flaws of the society or the institutions governing it. This is to produce either a realization of the issues or an observationally comedic release, or in best cases, both. Films can produce this through satire, contradictions, as well as paradoxes. “Mujeres al borde de ataque de nervios” is radical and provocative in terms of the conservative ideals surrounding gender roles and social contracts. This is most evident in terms of character development.The story revolves around three women; an actress, a psychopath and a fugitive, all dealing with the traumas that their relationships imposed upon them. Additionally,the male figures in this film embody all traditional characteristics associated with women. Carlos is submissive to his dominant fiancé, the taxi driver is flamboyant and sensitive, and Ivan is cowardly. The traditional archetypes are placed on the men, while the women drive the plot as well as drive their lives. However, Almovodar cleverly presented these concepts through a pastiche of melodrama and comedy, enhancing the aesthetics layers of this postmodern film. ---------------------- Pastiche and Post Modern Film by Xinyi Wang ( Victoria) At first, I got confused about what Professor Columpar said about "form over text" and "pastiche". The idea of "mixture and fragmentation" is hard to understand. But through the film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, ''I found it was a really interesting style. The overall form was serving the whole narrative plot to continues smoothly. The story was kind of ironic. Those things happened far away in the film seemed to pull me into the plot and see myself clearly in the characters. As an audience I felt involved in the whole process. I could barely tell what form or style it was, but it was like a combination of the shadow of several other forms and turned into a unique story-telling attitude. The way the film solve the problems and the way the film told about human thoughts attracted me a lot at the end of the film. And that is what I think is unique and impressive about pastiche and post modern film. ---------------------- Irreverence and Irony in ''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown ''by Colleen Cade In Allinson’s chapter entitled ''Postmodernism, Performance and Parody, ''he refers to irreverence and irony in film as portraying false identities and representing artificial characters in order to deliver an impactful and contemporary reality to the viewer (210-211). Alternatively, irreverence and irony in the postmodern film can also be seen as purposely exaggerating and misinterpreting a character or group of people as a whole in order to achieve a desired effect; such as humour. This particular portrayal of irreverence and irony is notable in Almodovar’s film, ''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. ''As the title suggests, the film exaggerates and takes control of the unfair belief that women are fragile and,when faced with trauma (in the case, the end of a relationship), are unable to cope. This stereotype is apparent throughout the film and is a major plot device as the women in the film consistently act irrationally in order for the plot to continue onward. ---------------------- Self-Reflexive Techniques and The Postmodern Film - Hunter Scharfe In Mark Allison’s essay entitled “Postmodernism, Performance and Parody”, he highlights the fact that postmodern films emphasize the use of self-reflexive techniques and usually focus on “performance, simulation and parody, the absence of so-called narrative.” He goes on to also say that post modern films “subvert old meanings as well as ‘construct’ new ones through the repositioning of artistic and cultural discourses” In other words, Mark is explaining that postmodern films do not attempt to keep viewers in the illusion of being in the diegesis of the film throughout its duration; rather, these films attempt to force the viewer into constantly thinking about the fact that the film is merely a “simulation” or “parody” of a real-life situation or topic. To create this simulation, Mark explains that postmodern films implement “recycled” material to emphasize and articulate meanings that are relevant to the characters and story of the film. In “''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”, for instance, this idea of recycled material is implemented in the use of dated props, music and costumes. In the beginning of the movie the old-school signs and the generally 1950’s style costumes create a unique experience when combine with dated music. In a sense, a vintage vibe is created by this use of recycled material. In addition to this, the entire theme of the movie is a recycled comedy clash of men vs. women. In this movie, however, the director completely flips the convention of women being dependent of men, to a scenario where women are independent and do not rely on their relationships with men. ---------------------- Pastiche in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Jordan Yang Hill defined pastiche as “simply consists of a ‘blank parody’: a ‘neutral mimicry without parody’s ulterior motives’” (Film and Postmodernism, 101) In Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Almodovar used pastiche to mix different performing styles in order to show the “dramas” that are going on in Pepa’s life after her breakup with Ivan. Almodovar cooperates soap opera style into the film to show that women are masochistic, fragile, and extremely emotional, and that they are defined by their relationships with men. He also uses American Western film styles towards the end of the movie when Pepa and Ivan’s wife started a duel which later on developed into a firefight. This shows the dramatic struggle between the two rivals in love, and again, shows that women are male-centered. Amodovar cleverly uses pastiche to establish a world in the film according to his world view, which is – “The world is a perfect place, except for one thing – men abandon and cheat on women.” ---------------------- Pastiche in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Jin Wang In "Film and Postmodernism," ''John Hill describes pastiche : although both parody and pastiche are conventionally associated with postmodernism, jameson argues that, within postmodern culture, it is pastiche which is dominant. For jameson, while parody involves a sense of criticism or mockery of the text or texts which are being parodied, pastiche simply consists of 'blank parody’"(“Film and Postmodernism” 101). therefore, pastiche is simply the imitation of the stylistic ideas in postmodernism. in the film of ''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, when characters catch a Mambo-loving taxi with the Latin rhythm. It's the use of pastiche, since as is usually the case these days, but actually it is also a rare, which aims to justify the origin. ---------------------- Intertextual of high and low culture by Crystal Yi In John Hill’s ‘Film and Postmodernism’ , he notes that ‘ A central component of this process has been a mixing of elements from both ‘high’ and ‘Low’ cultural (which may in turn be seen as an example of ‘differentiation’, or the breaking down of boundaries, which has been identified as feature of postmodernism more generally.) Page 84. In my opinion, intertextual of high and low culture means mix culture element that appear in the film to achieve some significant meaning. In the movie ‘ Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ , there are some setting scenes that gives me different feelings of culture. For example, the harbor setting gives a sense of European Culture. Later on, the setting of the female character(who almost fall from the building, I forgot her name) pours trashes into a pile of trash, the background give s sense of Japanese feeling… These are very different cultures and I receive these two feelings. So, intertextual of High and Low Culture may transmit some meanings, and some time it may confuse audience as well. ---------------------- Context of Intertextual References (Jessica Rapson) A prevailing trait of the postmodern film is its ability to be self-reflexive; that is, the postmodern film is aware of that it is a form of consumerist media. This trait is shared with the radical and art film, but the postmodern film is set apart by its “use of references to film history, and quotation from other styles", (John Hill, 101). This form of self-awareness depends on the audience being familiar with the media that is being referenced, and thus engages the audience on an extra-textual level. After researching the intertextual references in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, I discovered that several specific shots were made as a direct reference to other films, namely the shot of the drugged gazpacho which is allegedly a copy of a similar shot in Hitchcock's Spellbound, in which a similarly drugged glass of milk is featured. However, instead of attempting to imitate the work of other films, the postmodern film seeks to parody other works by deliberately drawing attention to the film's similarities to its referenced material. In doing so the postmodern film becomes self-aware and engages the audience by making them similarly self-aware. ---------------------- Postmodernism in Film - Nicolas U In John Hill's Film and Postmodernism, he argues that postmodernism is an ambiguous categorization of film, and derives from the works of various scholars to determine the characteristics of postmodernism in the film medium. Hill references Andreas Huyssen, in how postmodernism is not necessarily a succeeding art movement of modernism, nor is it an improvement upon the artistic qualities of modernism. Instead, Huyssen argues that post-modernism serves to re-invent the notion of the unconventionality that modernism brought forth in cinema, but that it breaks away by using elements of high culture and low culture. This is done through pastiche, or referencing texts from the past. However, many believe that post-modernism is unoriginal and is inherently grounded upon the production methods of New Hollywood (films that use techniques common to art films, but financed by Hollywood Studios) Other argue that Postmodernism uses pastiche and text references to critique past cultural practices, refunction them, and interrogate these conventions. In Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, Almodovar's stylistic techniques involves a mixture of Hollywood conventions, and techniques used in Art films. But Almodovar does not use this hybridization to merely reference the past in this film, instead, he critiques fame, gender roles, and popular culture. ---------------------- Self-reflexivity of postmodern film -by Ivy Li Professor Columpar highlighted some defining attributes of the postmodern films and arts and how the properties are reflected in different types of films. Which is partly defined as “use of references to film history, and quotation from other styles." (John Hill, 101) Self-reflexivity can be observed in previous films we watched, for example, "8 1/2” theatrical and artificial impression since it shows many unrealistic or unconnected scene; for short movie “It Wasn’t Love”, the character tries on various identities and force the spectators to think through her own identity, rather than recall on one figure or stereotype. In doing so, self-reflexivity draw attention to film as some things that is made by an artist, expressing own unique vision and version of the world, and then "force spectators to engage with a film intellectually." This technique was used in the comedy film we watch this week too. When the wife was travelling on the motorcycle with a gun, there is a close shot filmed from the side of her face, and her hair was straightened and flying back because of the wind. It reminds me of a way to portray a witch in classical films but blended well and served a little differently in this film.